Ryan Gosling Says It's "Great" to Be a Dad Again at New York City Screening of The Nice Guys

Ryan Gosling has had a busy week. Just days after revealing that he and Eva Mendes recently welcomed their second daughter, the actor hit the red carpet to promote his new movie, The Nice Guys, with co-stars Russell Crowe and Matt Bomer in New York City. And while Gosling—who plays a private detective in the action-packed ’70s-set film, which hits theaters May 20th—is famously guarded when it comes to his personal life, he did tell reporters that it was “great” to be a new dad again before he turned his attention to discussing his latest role.

Really, it’s a role worth talking about. Gosling’s turn as Holland March, a widowed father who spends as much time drinking as he does working, is quite a departure from any character he’s played before. In fact, it’s downright hilarious—and the actor appreciated the chance to get audiences laughing. “It was really fun, actually,” he said of shooting the film’s most LOL-worthy scenes. “I got to do a lot of physical comedy.”

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He also got to show off some intense action moves while wielding weapons and crashing cars onscreen. “The stunts were hard,” said Gosling, revealing that it was actually an off-camera gaffe that he remembers most from his days on set. “I had an incident with a cappuccino machine at the catering truck, but I don’t think that counts [as a stunt].”

While Gosling seems to have recovered from that mishap, his character isn’t so lucky when his arm is broken by hired enforcer Jackson Healy, played by Crowe. The scene in which the injury takes place is downright painful to watch—but Gosling was happy that he got to sport a giant arm cast as a result. “It helped add something to the character,” he said.

And although his character doesn’t always see eye-to-eye with Crowe’s onscreen, Gosling jumped at the chance to work with the Gladiator star. “I’m a big fan of his,” he said. “I grew up on his films.” Crowe was all about bonding with his co-stars on the set, even renting out a bar for the cast to watch a rugby match. “I can’t speak for everyone else, but I was drunk through the entire film just from that one night,” joked Gosling. “Actually, right now I’m still feeling a little blurry.”

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Hangover aside, Crowe told InStyle that Gosling brought his A-game to work every day. “I get on with Ryan very easily,” he said. “He loves the cinema, he loves his job, and he does a lot of thinking before he gets onto the set. So he’s really easy to work with in that regard.”

The duo’s co-star Matt Bomer—who plays film’s main villain, John Boy—had nothing but praise for their onscreen chemistry. “I think everything that’s great about their pairing is captured on film, which is exactly how it should be,” Bomer told InStyle. “Their interplay together is so spontaneous and so present, and it’s so different from take to take. It was just two really great actors who inherently trusted each other, knew what role they were playing, and were not afraid to really play off of each other.”

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Check out the trailer for The Nice Guys below, and catch the film in theaters on May 20th.